Thanks, Henry

I don't have a blog, but have a website for my business. I have a local lady who designed it for me. (It needs a rework right now). If you get the right person to design it, it won't be hard to maintain. I've had a website since about 2005 and have to say that I wouldn't have a business without it. I'm in the home food delivery business, not the quilt business though. It's all about getting people who are looking for what you sell to find you. Your website has to come up in the first page of google, yahoo, bing, etc. when they go looking for what you sell. So you need a niche that not everyone is in. In other words, just selling quilts won't get attention as there are a zillion people selling quilts. It's a lot about the words you use. Read a little bit about search engine optimization before you start your plan. Think about who can afford your product and who might want to buy it. (Most of my clients are single Dr.'s and lawyers, as they can afford it, they work long hours and are want healthy meals.) Have you considered baby quilts? If I were going to do that in my city, I would use Facebook to advertise to people who are on private elementary school lists (I don't do facebook, but I know you can advertise to certain groups of people or zip codes. Therefore, I may use the wrong vernacular.) There is an area in my city that has great schools, therefore I might advertise in that zip code. Think about who is going to buy your baby quilt. Someone has to have a pretty good income to buy a handmade baby quilt. Who is going to baby showers? How do you get your product in front of them? Learn to take good photos of your quilts. It's all about the lighting and the props. Most any camera will take decent photo these days. Get a tripod. They are cheap and just about any camera will attach to one. It's about the lighting mostly and the items you use around them. There are lots of tutorials on photography on the web. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Who can afford you? How do you get their attention? How do you get them to give you a shot at making them that special quilt? Here's a site that I went to today that I would consider if I were buying a baby or wheelchair quilt. I don't care for the layout (It takes too long to go through all those big photos) but I like the concept that she has only one product (most people won't get to the baby quilt portion of her site). She gets your attention, though. http://www.homesewnbycarolyn.com/lovie-lap-quilts.html Here are some photos that I've seen that I think are good (besides the ones in the site above). I also have a book that I bought at Half-Priced books called Living with Quilts by Phyllis George. It has some of the most gorgeous photos of quilts that you ever imagined. Also, look at the photos in quilt magazines. bk

Yes, I have been getting these oddly formatted pages, a la Houzz, but not a la Gardenweb, for a while. The main menu listing all forums now drives me up the wall. I suspect they are trying to make all the GW pages like the Houzz pages, don't you think? They are poorly designed. Like I care to know who the top commenters are??? What's that all about? Hmmm, I have no use for that. Instead, how about some way to see if someone is logged on but.... top commentators??? Odd. Then they got rid of related forum links that used to be where those commentator names are. Then the main list of forums is now in random order instead of alphabetical so good luck finding something fast. Their 'Your Topics' in each individual forum page section seems to be an attempt to fix that problem but it 'learns' depending on what forums you go to (I am guessing). I hope that does not mean it forgets if I stop to visit a forum for a while. But it would be best to let me delete the entries or add them. The individual forum pages now extend further downwards automatically if you scroll to the bottom.... makes the bottom automatically "add" more posts at the bottom ad infinitum... just scroll down and-or hover the cursor there. Of course, it makes me wonder if there is anything at the real true end of each forum page because I tried... finding what is at the "real" bottom.... by scrolling down and down and down and down looking maybe for links for help? contact? about? but I saw nothing but more posts. Ha! They should have left "well working" and "useful" alone.

lpink, I think this link to the Vivienne Files will lead you to the various posts for “Weekly Timeless Wardrobe.” Each Monday for the last several months, she has posted a piece that will go toward establishing a timeless wardrobe. Here is a link to the first post in the series which will explain the whole concept.